1. Field
This document relates to a refrigerator with a structure for preventing outside air from introducing into an evaporator.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 is a side cross-sectional view showing a conventional refrigerator.
Referring to FIG. 1, the conventional refrigerator includes a main body 1, a storage chamber 3 provided in the main body 1, a door 5 for opening/closing the storage chamber 3, an evaporator 10 provided at the rear of the storage chamber 3, a cooling fan 15 for transferring cold air produced in the evaporator 10 to the storage chamber 3, a defrost heater 18 provided at the evaporator 10, a drain pan 21 having the shape of a funnel F provided at a lower portion of the evaporator 10, a drain hose 24 connected to the drain pan 21 in order to guide and discharge defrost water collected in the drain pan 21 to a bottom of the refrigerator, a collecting tray 27 provided at the bottom of the main body 1 to collect defrost water which is flowed along the drain hose 24.
According to this construction, in case the evaporator 10 continues to carry out an operation for producing cold air for a predetermined time, frost is formed on the evaporator 10. And, defrost water is produced, as the defrost heater 18 is operated to remove the frost. The defrost water is discharged to the collecting tray 27 via the drain pan 21 and drain hose 24. Here, the movement of refrigerant into the evaporator 10 is blocked during the defrost process.
If the defrost process is completely finished, cold air is produced as refrigerant is re-introduced into the evaporator 10, and the cold air is blown into the storage chamber 3 as the cooling fan 15 rotates. Here, if the cooling fan 15 rotates, outside air of room temperature may be introduced into the evaporator 10 through an outlet of the drain hose 24. And, the introduced outside air is contacted with cold air in the vicinity of the drain pan 21.
Here, since the outside air contains a specific amount of moisture, the moisture is condensed by contacting it with cold air. Further, if the storage chamber 10 is a freezing chamber, the condensed water droplet is frozen at a neck of the drain pan 21 due to the temperature of cold air. Accordingly, the water droplet to be frozen blocks a discharge passage of defrost water, so that defrost water is not smoothly discharged when carrying out the defrost operation.
The present invention is derived to resolve the above conventional problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a refrigerator which allows defrost water to be discharged smoothly by preventing outside air from introducing toward an evaporator.